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Navy Adm. William McRaven, the next chancellor of the University of Texas System, addresses the Texas Board of Regents, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014

AUSTIN–University of Texas System Chancellor Bill McRaven lined up against legislation that would allow licensed persons to bring handguns into campus buildings, known as campus carry.

In a letter Thursday to Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Speaker Straus, the newly installed and highly respected chancellor told leadership that parents, students, faculty, law enforcement and administrators have all expressed concern with the proposed law.

“The presence of concealed weapons will make a campus a less-safe environment,” he said, echoing similar concerns as his predecessor, Francisco Cigarroa. “I respectfully trust that you and the Texas Legislature will weigh these concerns, and the safety and lives of those on our campuses as you consider this issue.”

This week, both House and Senate members filed campus carry legislation. It already has the votes to pass the Senate, and in previous sessions has easily passed in the House.

On Wednesday, Dan Patrick referred the campus carry bill to committee, acknowledging that new rule changes would likely fast-track its passage in the Senate.

McRaven noted “unease” from university mental health professionals, who work with students who may be dealing with emotional or psychological pressures.

“There is a great concern that the presence of handguns, even if limited to licensed individuals are 21 or older, will lead to an increase in both accidental shootings and self-inflicted wounds,” he said.

Campus law enforcement are “particularly troubled about the ability of our officers to differentiate between the bad actor and persons seeking to defend themselves and others when both have guns drawn,” he said.

Texas bans weapons in university buildings, and efforts to overturn that have failed in the last several sessions. Opponents say allowing guns on campus is dangerous and could create fear among students and teachers. Supporters say it would enhance self-defense.

Navy Adm. William McRaven, center, the next chancellor of the University of Texas System, exits a Texas Board of Regents meeting after making brief statement, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014, in Austin, Texas. McRaven starts in January; System officials say he will make $1.2 million a year. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

AUSTIN— Gov. Greg Abbott signaled a departure from the contentious University of Texas regent appointments made under the Perry administration by naming an education expert and those expected to bring greater accord after years of infighting.

Abbott, a Longhorn alum, selected Sara Martinez Tucker and David Beck as the two newest regents on the UT System Board of Regents, while reappointing Steve Hicks for a second six-year term.

Seven of the nine regents announced Thursday (Abbott also named regents for A&M and Texas Tech) have contributed a total of more than $750,000 to Abbott’s campaigns for attorney general and governor, according to the Texas Ethics Commission.

Beck, who contributed more than $100,000 to Republican Abbott, has donated across the political spectrum. In the last 14 years, he’s given to Texas Democrats, including Kirk Watson, Trey Martinez Fischer and Rodney Ellis, and Republicans, such as Ken Paxton and Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Martinez Tucker, a former undersecretary of education in the George W. Bush administration, has vast experience in education. She has not contributed to political campaigns in the last decade, according to the Texas Ethics Commission.

The UT System board has grabbed headlines in recent years over dust-ups between its members, UT-Austin leadership and members of the Texas Legislature. Some regents, particularly Wallace Hall, have initiated numerous investigations of the flagship campus.

Hicks, chairman of an Austin-based private investment firm, has openly questioned the motivations behind such investigations, arguing during a board meeting that his fellow regents were spending too much time trying to “lay some blame at the feet of Bill Powers.”

Hall, a Dallas businessman has said it is within his role as a regent to question management at system campuses.

Kay Bailey Hutchison, president of Texas Exes, the UT alumni association, called the appointees “proven supporters of the University of Texas.”

“Importantly, each is a champion of the role research plays in our flagship,” said Hutchison, referring to a topic that has been a sticking point in the ongoing conflict between some regents and the Powers administration.

The Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education, a group that formed in 2011 to counter higher education policies being pushed by the Perry administration, swiftly commended the appointments.

“Coupled with the new leadership provided by Chancellor McRaven, these appointments signal a new era of collaboration, cooperation and excellence for the System,” the coalition said in a statement.

Pending approval by the senate, the two new regents will replace Eugene Powell and Robert Stillwell on the nine-member board.

Martinez Tucker, who lives in Dallas, is CEO of the National Math + Science Initiative, a company that works to develop students’ interest in STEM fields. She previously worked as the chief executive officer of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

A Laredo native, she has a bachelor’s degree and MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. During the George W. Bush administration, she served as an undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Education.

Beck, a Houston trial attorney, has been named among the best lawyers in the U.S. every year since 1985. He earned his law degree from UT and received the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2010.

Chief budget writer Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, one of the most powerful members in the House, is working on a resolution to impeach University of Texas Regent Wallace Hall for alleged gross interference with UT-Austin and its management.

Pitts said the final straw was Hall’s open records request asking for emails and other information regarding the UT School of Law, its foundation, including emails from UT President Bill Powers and his deputy Nancy Brazzil and the Legislature. Some emails may include information about members of the Legislature requesting admission to the UT law school on behalf of others.

The request came just days after the Senate voted to confirm three men appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to sit on the board of regents.

“I renew my call of witch-hunt,” Pitts said, alluding to the first meeting of a joint committee to investigate micromanagement in university governing boards.

Pitts has two choices that he can present to House Speaker Joe Straus for consideration before moving forward: a 76-signature impeachment resolution that will go to the Senate or the formation of a committee to investigate regent behavior — including Hall’s — that could merit impeachment.

A call from Hall was not immediately returned.

Because the Legislature is in session, an impeachment inquiry begun before Tuesday could continue after the Legislature adjourns from its special session.

The three nominees for the University of Texas Board of Regents were voted unanimously out of committee on Tuesday and will now go to the full Senate for a final confirmation.

Judge Ernest Aliseda, businessman Jeff Hildebrand and current regent Paul Foster were nominated by Gov. Rick Perry and underwent an unusually long hearing in the Senate Nominations Committee on Monday.

The bulk of the hearing was spent discussing the micromanagement controversy between Perry, the Legislature and UT-Austin President Bill Powers. Foster denied that there was ever any talk by members of the board to remove Powers from his position or ask him to relinquish his post.

“Hopefully the hearing will send a very strong message that the Senate and the Legislature wants to move beyond this and get the focus back on what te system should be focused on,” said Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, the committee chair.

Hegar said he thinks the full Senate will vote in favor of the regents, in part because of the long hearing during which legislators –even ones not on the committee — got answers for hours worth of questioning.

At the end of Monday’s hearing, Hegar urged all members to “move beyond the controversy,” stating that there are nine schools and six health institutions in the system and everyone is only focusing on one.

Ashley Purgason, the first female student regent and first from the UT Medical Branch, teared up when reading her thank you’s. Purgason praised her UT System family for their hard work and for helping her get through the death of her brother. She will be replaced by UT Austin student Nash Horne.

The board also bid adieu to UT Arlington President James Spaniolo and Kenneth Kalkwarf, UT Health Science Center president.

The new regents have not been confirmed for their positions. They are awaiting approval by the Texas Senate. A meeting to discuss the pending nominations is likely in the next week. Despite an easing of tensions between the Perry-appointed regents, UT-Austin and the Texas Legislature, there are still rumblings of discontent between the parties.

Update at 6:33 p.m.: Jenny Lacoste-Caputo, spokeswoman for the UT System, said regents have indicated they’ll certainly testify before joint oversight committee when called. The System has no comment on the video.

Original item at 4:52 p.m.: A new site is urging the Longhorn Nation to wake up.

The Wake Up Longhorns website and features a short video detailing how UT-Austin and Texas A&M were designated by the Texas Constitution and Legislature as universities of the first class, something that is allegedly at risk because of Gov. Rick Perry’s command of the University of Texas Board of Regents.

The site, created by Houston attorneys Julius Glickman and Joe Jamail, and Houston businessman Charles Tate, alleges that Perry’s handpicked UT regents are doing his bidding to bring down the university.

“They’re trying to tell the people who are educators and who have experience in education how to do education,” said Glickman, former student body president in the early 1960′s who recently received the Distinguished Alumnus Award. “The chancellor and the educators and the administrators know their jobs. It’s not up to the regents to tell them how to do those jobs.”

On the right hand side of the site is a form to notify legislators, or whomever, of the issue. Glickman said he hopes the attention will encourage lawmakers to bring the offending regents before a committee.

“I’d like to see what their plans are to keep and make this a great university, how’re they going to do that, or if that’s even on their agenda,” Glickman said. “Once you have to respond to these questions it’s very hard to wiggle out and avoid the answer.”

A schism between Perry and UT Austin President Bill Powers formed after Powers refused to halt tuition increases for the university in 2011. Perry also undermined the importance of UT as a research institution.

Glickman fears that by denigrating the research aspect of the university, UT will be on a path to mediocrity. He said increasing enrollment while cutting tuition in an era of minimal state support also puts UT at risk of falling behind.

The University of Texas Board of Regents backed down a bit on Thursday from their scuffle with legislators by agreeing to turn in information requested by senators.

But if history is any indicator, the harmony will likely not last.

The Dallas Morning News‘ Holly Hacker reported in 2011 that UT alumni and business supporters rose up to defend UT Austin President Bill Powers and UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa, who some believed were at risk of losing their jobs.

Rumor has it that they were also being micromanaged. Sound familiar?

In the past few months, tensions have been high between the Legislature and the regents who many believe are taking a little bit too close of an interest in Powers (requesting he not delete any of his emails, for example).

In 2011, Holly reported that the issue was the lack of enforcement of ideas like $10,000 degrees and calculating each professor’s “cost per student” based on salaries and number of students taught, ideas backed by Gov. Rick Perry, and educator and oilman Jeff Sandefer.

This time around it has to do with Powers’ reluctance to keep tuition rates low, a Perry push that doesn’t factor in student population growth or waning support from state coffers.

“Today we have the opportunity to begin the path of healing and begin earning back the trust of our constituency. Because of that, this is one of the most important votes in the two years that I have served on the board,” said Regents Vice Chairman Steve Hicks.

Anyone who remembers the Kumbaya moment might be having déjà vu when Regent Chairman Gene Powell said Thursday that the board and the Legislature are friends.

“I consider most of them friends, and they long-term add to our quality by challenging us,” Powell said. “I’m an athlete, I was always challenged, challenged every day, so I don’t find challenges and people challenging me to be a bad thing. It makes you better.”

But just a few days after the regents patched up their troubles in 2011, they sent huge information requests to the nine universities in the system causing micromanagement allegations to flare up.

Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said “time will tell” whether the détente will last.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents seemed to back down from their confrontation with lawmakers over records and meddling on Thursday when they consented to release data requested by legislators.

The board sought the attorney general’s opinion on whether it is required under law to give up the information requested by the lawmakers, some of which it deems confidential.

“It’s important to acknowledge that the reality of the controversy of the board and the Legislature has unfortunately and inadvertently cast a shadow on the UT System so much so that amendments proposed could potentially hurt the innocent and dedicated employees that serve the system,” said Regent Printice L. Gary.

The Austin American-Statesman reported that Rep. Jim Pitts, the chief budget writer for the House, filed an amendment that would restrict the regents from commissioning the outside review of the foundation by limiting their spending power.

Regent James Dannenbaum said it was not the intent of the board to try to withhold information from the legislators but that they were acting in the interest of attorney-client confidentiality when they made their request last week.

The board also unanimously voted to move along with a review by the attorney general’s office of the relationship between the UT School of Law and the Law School Foundation, avoiding a costly external review process.

“This is a great board of regents and it’s doing its job in an appropriate and diligent manner,” Gary said.

Tensions between the board and the Legislature have been mounting in recent months, but Thursday’s meeting seemed to throw back to an era of good feelings.

“The Legislature has been wonderful to UT over the years,” said Regents Chairman Gene Powell. “I don’t take any umbrage at them challenging us, chastising us, this is a politically appointed board, I get that, and we have to deal with that.”

Worried the constant disagreement between the regents and University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers will hurt the world-class university, lawmakers are injecting themselves into the debate to protect Powers who some believe is at risk of being asked to step down.

AUSTIN — The University of Texas regents took no action behind closed doors and Vistasp Karbhari remains the sole finalist for the post of president of UT-Arlington.

Vistasp M. Karbhari

A week after regents named Karbhari, 51, as their choice for the role, they met again Wednesday to review their decision.

Karbhari, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, was on track to replace James Spaniolo, who announced in June his plans to step down.

He is currently embroiled in the wrongful death lawsuit of two professors who were shot and killed by Amy Bishop, a professor at Alabama-Huntsville, who was denied tenure. The lawsuit alleges he was aware that Bishop was mentally unstable but failed to enforce a safety policy that would have referred her to the police.

Jenny Lacoste-Caputo, spokeswoman for the system, said not all regents were aware of Karbhari’s involvement in the lawsuit.

Karbhari grew up in India and is married. He served as a professor and vice chairman of the structural engineering department at the University of California-San Diego, and has written or co-written more than 200 scientific papers. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Poona in India and his doctorate from the University of Delaware.

AUSTIN — The University of Texas at Austin Committee on Business Productivity released its final report Tuesday of suggestions to improve UT’s business operations and generate savings of about $490 million over the next decade that will go toward teaching and research.

But achieving that will require an overhaul, the report says.

The committee, formed by President Bill Powers and composed of 13 national business leaders, turned out “Smarter Systems for a Greater UT,” which focuses on ways to streamline and improve administrative functions, commercialization of technology and use of assets.

To do that, and possibly save some money for a rainy day, the university will have to consolidate business and administrative functions so that some faculty members and academic departments coordinate teaching and research. Possible gain: $200 million over 10 years.

UT President Bill Powers

“I want to dispel any notion that this will be simple or easy,” Powers said in prepared remarks. “Indeed, if successful we would be the first university in America to overhaul its operational models in all three areas under consideration. But little worth doing is easy, and if it were easy, it would have been done already. This will be a major effort. It won’t happen overnight.”

Other suggestions include licensing as many projects as possible and letting the private sector pick the ones that will succeed, and better leveraging university assets, like selling excess power ($92 million over 10 years) or outsourcing food or housing, as Texas A&M University did in 2012 ($240-$290 million).

Overseeing the task will be UT’s vice president and chief financial officer, Kevin Hegarty.

Equating the university to a business, Powers said it’s important for the UT community to remember the “academic nature” of their business.

“It is crucial that we direct more of our resources into our teaching and research,” Powers said. “And we need to do that to foster a civil society, to bolster our understanding of the universe, to bolster our understanding of our place in that universe, to collaborate with fellow institutions across the world in building humanity’s body of knowledge — then teaching our students about it, and about how they will create more of it.”